1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a catheter for cardiovascular application, comprising an elongated catheter shank; a lumen inside the catheter shank; a mandrel sleeve which extends in the lumen; and a guide wire which runs in the mandrel sleeve and is extendable through a sluice gate out of the catheter at a distal end thereof.
2. Background Art
Catheters for cardiovascular application also include for example electrodes for cardiac pacemakers or defibrillators which come in the most varying designs. Special problems are posed when these electrodes are to be positioned not only in the easily accessible atria or ventricles of the heart, but in hardly accessible cardiac vessels such as the coronary sinus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,512,957 B1 teaches a catheter which is suitable for introduction into the coronary sinus or other hardly accessible blood vessels, in particular upon use as a cardiac pacemaker electrode probe. This catheter has an elongated catheter shank with a lumen which a sleeve-type mandrel—a springy, comparatively dimensionally stable guide sleeve—passes through. This mandrel houses a guide wire which can be led through a sluice gate out of the catheter at the distal end thereof.
This guide wire is pre-bent and used as a probe which may be advanced beyond the tip of the catheter in a direction that deviates from the straight direction of the catheter, owing to the pre-bent orientation of the wire. In this way it is possible to advance the pre-bent wire into a branch of the blood vessels, and then to follow up with the catheter that is guided by the pre-bent wire.
In spite of increased flexibility and, consequently, more precise guidance, this catheter needs improvement in several aspects. For example, the catheter is only intended to be led into the heart by a mandrel sleeve and guide wire, with the guide wire being used only in critical situations by extension and guidance for instance into a cardiac vessel. When the guide wire is led in separately from outside and the catheter is subsequently pushed along the entire length of the wire according to the so-called over-the-wire technique, there is the problem that the guide wire is subject to high friction by the sluice seal at the distal wire gate, which impedes in the catheter being pushed over the guide wire.
On the other hand, the mentioned catheter is intended for use only together with a guide wire, other designs being chosen for catheters for use with a mandrel. In this regard, prior art catheters are available which are conceived either for use together with a guide wire or with a mandrel. This will double manufacturing and stockkeeping requirements for catheters of otherwise identical design. These additional requirements also affect hospital logistics and stockkeeping.